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Pre-Homeschool Summer Chat

post #1 of 132
6/13/10 at 8:49am
Thread Starter 
Thought I'd jump in and start since the rest of you are obviously having too much fun out in the sun.
How are all the pre-homeschoolers?
DD recently rediscovered the reading eggs books she made me buy last year and she asked with and excited look "Are these children's books, for children to read?" So cute and then she read them to me

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post #2 of 132
6/13/10 at 12:46pm
We're having fun. DS (my youngest) is turning 4 in a week and is thrilled to be "catching up" with his big sister. He's pretty sure that at some point, he'll be as old as she is. I remember thinking that way when I was little, too -- that if I just hurried up, I could be as old as my super cool big cousin!

As of right now, we're signed up for n-o-t-h-i-n-g this summer and it's glorious. No classes, no camps, no activities. We're spending a lot of time with friends, checking out local museums and parks, going to the beach, playing in the backyard, and reading books. He and his sister (5) have started asking me to read them stories several times a day instead of just at bedtime. I suspect this is taking place of the naps they're no longer doing...a chance to sit down and have some quiet cuddle time and recharge those batteries.
post #3 of 132
6/13/10 at 3:59pm
We're doing pretty good here. My 2yo and 4yo have been little tornadoes lately since the big kids are on school break, heck all the kids are being little tornadoes and constantly at each other. So we are going to get started again tomorrow for my own sanity. I'm taking a break now from cutting pieces for our lapbooks we'll be doing this week to kick off our astronomy study for the summer. I'm *planning* to do the lapbooks this week with them to introduce some of the basics, and then over the remainder of this month and all of next month we'll add little sections to it here and there to expand on all the great stuff we'll be doing. Since I'm kinda creating this whole thing myself, just using Homeschool Share to pull some materials from for the most part, I'm able to even include a 2yo. LOL

But I also have weekly field trips to the science and history place here, they are offering a free "curious kids" program 2 hours every Tuesday afternoon for kids 0-12yo so all 4 of mine can participate in that. And the 4yo is going to be joining her big sisters at VBS this summer, I don't know what I'll do with just one kid at home in the mornings that week LOL

Other than that really, we're still playing lots and learning about actually DOING the chores and helping out around the house, and trying to convince the 2yo that using the potty really isn't that bad of a thing LOL
post #4 of 132
6/13/10 at 4:33pm
I'm slacking as a 9 month pregnant momma

For the summer we are planning nothing but outside backyard play, gardening, nature walks, swimming in the local pond, getting to know the baby, BBQ parties, ice cream sundae parties, and being lazy.

I'm really looking forward to it! Oh, and many crafts. Paige loves her workbooks and so sometimes we will do those, but mostly just hanging out.
post #5 of 132
6/13/10 at 7:01pm

Pre-Homeschool Summer Chat

Here's the new thread.

We're visiting my folks so our kids get to hang out with their cousins. Today we took them to the Phoenix children's museum. It's really a great place. My brother had to get home early so he left about 2. I offered my son the chance for just he, his sister, and me to stay, but he wanted to go home since the cousins weren't going to be there.

I'm letting him watch a couple Blue's Clues episodes right now. We don't do TV, but he does get to watch some documentaries. When we visit my folks, he gets to watch Blue's Clues while I shower (so my parents don't have to worry about him.) He didn't fall asleep on the way home so I figured this will at least give him a little down time.

Now to figure out what to do the rest of the day. We'll read some books. Maybe we'll go to the railroad park. No one goes there in the evening so it's fun to ride the little train and play in the empty playground.
post #6 of 132
6/13/10 at 7:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SundayCrepes View Post
Here's the new thread.

We're visiting my folks so our kids get to hang out with their cousins. Today we took them to the Phoenix children's museum. It's really a great place. My brother had to get home early so he left about 2. I offered my son the chance for just he, his sister, and me to stay, but he wanted to go home since the cousins weren't going to be there.

I'm letting him watch a couple Blue's Clues episodes right now. We don't do TV, but he does get to watch some documentaries. When we visit my folks, he gets to watch Blue's Clues while I shower (so my parents don't have to worry about him.) He didn't fall asleep on the way home so I figured this will at least give him a little down time.

Now to figure out what to do the rest of the day. We'll read some books. Maybe we'll go to the railroad park. No one goes there in the evening so it's fun to ride the little train and play in the empty playground.
we like to go there in the evening too!
post #7 of 132
6/13/10 at 11:49pm
subbing so i can find this again I'll write more this week
post #8 of 132
6/14/10 at 1:16am
Hi!
I think I may have said like one thing on the old thread, so I will re-introduce myself here.
I am the mama of two great kiddos, Keagan, who is 3 and Eden who is 14 months. Keagan's a bright, active kiddo with some special needs, so he's a handful, but a joy. We lean towards unschooling. But my problem lately is that he just LOVES structured activities and I never thought I'd be coming up with so many at this age, Days where I have three or four little things planned go so much better than the days I don't. DS really wants to be challenged intellectually (not just mama pride, something his OT was always telling me) and if I don't come up with something for him, he tends to cause problems. At his baby sister's expense. Sooo I have been trying to come up with more for him. We do a lot of playgroups, trips to the library, zoo, park etc but it's the days we're home that I need more.
I've recently started to do some "science experiments" with him and he really likes that. Anyone have any they've done with their preschooler? We've had fun freezing things, mixing oil and water, and growing those toys that you put in water and they get bigger.... don't know what those are called.... as well as some gardening.
We read a million books. He's reading some on his own, knows all the letters, sounds etc, a few site words and is working on the sounding it out thing. He loves letters and asks me to do that more, so I need more ideas there. (This has been his obsession all his own since he was about 20 months old and I showed him that his name started with a "K".... he just keeps asking for more. I've been almost reluctant because he's so young but I can't hold him back any more lol)


Anyway, any ideas on some fun activities to keep him happy would be appreciated greatly.
post #9 of 132
6/14/10 at 2:41am
Stephenie, check out www.thehappyscientist.com
post #10 of 132
6/14/10 at 8:06am
Hello!

I was subscribed to the old thread but that's about it. I maybe said a couple things but I'm sure nobody remembers me. Anyway, I'm subbing to this one too.

My DS is almost 3 (another week or so). And we are moving on Friday so there hasn't been a whole lot going on as far as preschool or even entertaining him properly. I hope to get a nice routine going when we get settled into our new place. We'll be in the city (well...small city) there so it'll be easier to get out and do stuff. Here we are in a suburb a 20-minute drive away from anything...I am so excited to move! We'll be closer to family too. We are moving a long ways and into an apartment. It'll also have a pool, so I'll teach DS to swim...

Anyway, planning to get a little more structured this summer. I still won't be doing too much but maybe a little bit every weekday morning and then just have a routine where we do certain things in the morning and then go out in the afternoon or whatever. Not too much "academic" but I do want that at least!

Looking forward to the good ideas and discussions that always happen on these threads!
post #11 of 132
6/14/10 at 9:38am
Thread Starter 
Oh, I already started a new thread. Maybe they can be merged? Do they even do that on this forum? I guess I have to PM a mod right?
post #12 of 132
6/14/10 at 10:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by greenmamapagan View Post
Oh, I already started a new thread. Maybe they can be merged? Do they even do that on this forum? I guess I have to PM a mod right?
I didn't see your's sorry
post #13 of 132
6/14/10 at 10:27am
Sunday Crepes- Thank you! That should keep us busy
post #14 of 132
6/14/10 at 10:31am
I have a 2.5 year old ds. We just came back from a trip out west to the Grand Canyon and Zion NP and then visited relatives in Minnesota. Ds got a lot of social time with his cousins, and also got to interact with their pets (we don't have any). I really need to figure out how to expose him to more animals that he can actually pet. He definitely loves cats, and isn't much into dogs. He also likes to count to 10 at the top of his lungs, but he's gone from a perfect count, to skipping 7 every time, to now skipping 7 and 8. We also look at lots of books together. I really like the Magic School Bus, and he started clamoring "more more" after we went through the book on the Magic School Bus in the solar system. I'm looking for a good illustrated children's dictionary/encyclopedia to introduce more vocabulary, too. Any recommendations? I'm leaning towards the DK one.
post #15 of 132
6/14/10 at 11:15am
I found this link for kids' science if anyone is interested: http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/
post #16 of 132
6/14/10 at 2:31pm
Subbity sub sub... although I'm trying to stay off this darn computer & have summer time fun with the kids instead!!
post #17 of 132
6/14/10 at 7:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momma Aimee View Post
I didn't see your's sorry
No problems

DD is going ice-skating with her favourite Auntie today
post #18 of 132
6/15/10 at 1:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lmk1 View Post
I'm looking for a good illustrated children's dictionary/encyclopedia to introduce more vocabulary, too. Any recommendations? I'm leaning towards the DK one.
Sonlight uses this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/079...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

However, I think you'd be much better off just talking to him and reading him a HUGE variety of books. My son's vocabulary is off the charts. At 27 months he said, "Do you see me standing on this sandbox?" At 29 months he said, "These flowers smell like pollination." I don't remember how old he was when he told us the bushes were a "processing plant" for rocks, but my husband and I were floored he knew the word. We asked him where he learned that and he said, "in the peanut butter sandwich book." And, to just boast a little bit, he was in a study at the university just before he turned 4. They wanted to know about sentence length. (I think they wanted one word for each year he was.) This is one of the sentences we wrote down, "The snake goes into the meerkat hole, where the meerkats are, so he can bite them." Nope, that's not it. It was a 22 word sentence. So add 7 more words that I don't remember and you'll have the sentence.

So read, read, read. I'm really getting into buying all the books off the www.sonlight.com curriculum. Another great series of books is http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ibrary&x=0&y=0 I also find the scholastic books tend to be really good. I'm not sure how you can get them if you don't belong to a homeschool group or school. Actually, I just did a search on amazon and a lot of books come up if you put in scholastic books. Don't know if they're all the same as the ones you get in the little catalogs. We get them on all kinds of subjects ranging from apple picking, to counting cows (actually it teaches even and odd numbers) to little house on the prairie picture books.
post #19 of 132
6/15/10 at 2:30am
I'll have to catch up with the posts! I figured I'd post so I'd stay updated.

Lately, I've started buying a few activity books for 3.5 yo DS. Not sure how they'll go over. I think I'll have to improvise a bit to make them fun for him. i.e. When you're supposed to circle a picture, he tends to get silly and scribble. I tried a stamper so that he'd stamp the right one and he did fine. We'll see. He's into card games lately. We have an animal Go Fish which we play as matching/memory as well as a 3 letter word puzzle card game which he likes because the back of the cards have the adjective for the noun in front.

I've also started making some Montessori materials: color grading, color matching, sound eggs, baric eggs, insets (?) for him to trace, sewing/embroidery basket, working on sandpaper letters & numbers, fabric basket.

I'm finally off from school (teaching) so I am sooooooo looking forward to being home with DS full time this summer!
post #20 of 132
6/15/10 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephenie View Post
I found this link for kids' science if anyone is interested: http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/
I just looked at one experiment. You have 2 bowls of water, add salt to one, then put an egg in each bowl and see what happens. Perfect for my 4 year old.
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Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Education › Learning at Home and Beyond › Pre-Homeschool Summer Chat